Fabulous First Day

Look at these lovely ladies!!!!  I sent my formal resignation letter to MCCSC last night and decided that I had better run through my email for anything that I might want.  This photo from Sandy was a keeper!

So a brief run down of the day's funness

I get home and ask Gus how was school? his reply good.  I mean come on kid!  I need details.  He said that there was 1 naughty kid that got on yellow (whatever that means).  He also shared that he made a friend.  This friend told Gus that he had a girlfriend.  Gus said he told him to go tell his girlfriend that he loved her and to show her his muscles.  My kid is SO smooth-gets it from his dad.  So Gus proceeds to tell me that this kid's girlfriend had a friend that Gus likes.  I asked him what she looked like and he says she's tall like him and blonde.  I mean REALLY????  We'll see how this all pans out.  He said his teacher is really nice and that they share the same birthday.  He wasn't too happy about not riding the bus.  I tried calling transportation 3 times today and got nothing.  So he's once again upset about not getting to ride the bus tomorrow.  He told me he would get on yellow tomorrow so that he could be sent to the principal and then talk to her about this bus situation.  I told him he had better be excellent and that I'd write a note instead :)

Hank=Happiness!  Had a super terrific day with the new gal!  You can tell she's a natural with kiddos.  This makes me feel happy too!

I have hall duty in the 4th/5th grade hallway before and after school.  I tried my best to interact with all kids that would indulge me.  It was weird not to know any of them.  I sat ALL day in an office with the other "EC" teachers trying to finalize our schedules.  I finally had to get some interaction with kids so I wandered down to the cafeteria and talked to some 4th graders about their day.  They seemed cheerful.  I  tried calling HR several times and only left messages.  I'm really wanting to wrap all this paperwork business up!

ok so it's 1030 and Gus has yet to take a bath...Hank is clean and now playing with toys :)  I'm exhausted and I didn't even have kids today!  Hopefully we'll all quickly get into a better routine!

It's been a LONG week!

This is that sculpture in downtown Chapel Hill (Hank running from me).  Don't you just love my photos and that I always have to explain them???  This is what I was taking about on your blog.  You and Goodman put me to shame!

So it's been a ridiculously long and wild week.  I'm still very excited about my new job.    I have still not signed a contract due to additional drama with HR, but I'm not complaining-well I will be next Friday when I don't have a paycheck...  Anyway I met the you of this school.  She even types extensive notes during meeting on her MACbook and wears fun earrings!  It's very weird.

We had Gus' open house last night.  His teacher is very sweet and she has 2 aides in her room!  I noticed her CAFE board and mentioned it.  She said that this year is the first year for the school to go to this model but she's been using for a few years now.  After talking to her for a bit, we went to find out bus info.  That was a mess.  Still not sure what bus he's riding or pick-up times.  I then made him go back to the front door and show me how to get to his class.  This school has 900 kiddos so it's rather large.  Luckily for him, his room is down the first hallway.  Overall I think he's excited.

After Gus' open house, I had mine.  Trent was to be home by 5, but wasn't.  I had to take the boys with me.  I was hoping that my open house assignment was NOT at the front door because I was nervous about the boys running around.  So I arrive to school with the boys and guess where I was to stand? FRONT DOOR.  Luckily for Trent, he arrived right after 6 when they opened the doors.  The kids were so excited and happy!  I hated not knowing any of them, but I tried to talk to as many as I could.  There is a large hispanic population in this area, thus we have a lot of families that speak spanish.  I told Trent I really need to take a course or two and learn some of the basics.  Overall I'm very excited about getting started working with kids! NOT excited about paperwork.

So it's Hank's turn...He's been happy and cheerful mostly.  We've had major unnecessary drama with the sitter.  I like her very much, but she was significantly late Tuesday which caused me to be late for my meeting.  I get home and they are still in jammies or next to nothing.  And on Wednesday Gus ate nothing all day and Hank only ate marshmallows and chocolate milk.  I don't mind the pjs as much as i mind the not eating thing.  So Trent and I have been interviewing more people-I finaly told trent last night that I think she'd be fine if we simply talked to her about these things...I mean I have, but not to the extent that I really should.  So not sure what's going to happen there.

Jill, Andy, Layne Nhi and the Chinese exchange student will be here NEXT Friday!  I'm thrilled about this!  It will be nice to see them.  When I talked to Layne Nhi last week she told me that 6th grade was hard.  I told her that's why I don't teach it!  I've talked to Jill every night this week.  Her car was broken into Monday night.  Evidently it happen all around the neighborhoods near cascades.  Jill is freaked!  She's now getting a security system installed.  We lived in 3 houses down for 2 years with the house unlocked most of the time and nothing.  She moves into the neighborhood and 3 weeks later, this happens.  She stressed this to me a few times.  That's her luck though.

Well I need to head out :(  But at least today I get to be in my room ALL day!!!

Keep taking gorgeous pics and making me jealous!

My New Digs

So I've been MIA.  Everything that could have gone wrong, has :(  My paperwork for DPS has been a mess.  I still don't have everything completed with HR.  The 'HR technician' assigned to me evidentially quit at some point last week.  I am not even going to tell you about it because I don't want relive it again.  So I am to report Monday at 8:30 for my first Bulldog faculty meeting.  I went in today just to wander around.  Fortunately I ran into the right people ( Sped facilitator, RTI coach, assistant principal and the day custodian)  and they were helping me figure my room situation out.  So this is a pic of my new room.  The few bits of furniture that were in there are older than me, but I'm NOT complaining!  I'll have this room all to myself.  It has a door that opens out into a good sized courtyard.  Through discussing my room situation, I found out that the other sped gal is grouchy and this will be her last year of teaching.  Super excited about that...  After being there today, I finally am beginning to feel excited about teaching.  I've been having dreams about FV folks lately.  It's just so sad to have to move on.

So onto the other mess I've had- We enrolled Hank at this 5 star preschool several weeks ago.  We were told there was not a wait list for his age group and just to call a week prior to him starting.  I called Monday and guess what? They have no recollection of him and now have NO openings!  After freaking out for a few days, plan B is now to hire someone to stay here with Hank and help get Gus on and off the bus.  We are interviewing a girl tonight and one in the morning.  I PRAY this works out!!!!!  It's going to cost nearly twice as much as we were paying before, but it's worth it to me!

I haven't even been reading your blog or checking up on you through FB.  I promise I will today! Sorry to be out of the loop

My first experience working for DPS

No I have nothing to share yet...I'm heading out shortly for an "Intake" session for new employees.  I have such mixed emotions.  I miss FV so much.  After talking to my sister and getting texts from friends about how weird it is that I'm not in the building, it just makes me so sad :(  And there are some kiddos that I feel like I abandoned because I didn't get to at least tell them I was leaving.  I have yet to have closer I suppose...

So the big question is who in the world is keeping the boys while I'm at this ridiculous thing?  I was freaking out trying to think about what we were going to do...I even asked Trent if he was already allowed to take a day off of work.  So after talking with a really nice family at the pool, they said they use care.com to find sitters.  A total stranger watching my kids? NO! ... Well we had no choice.  After reviewing some, we found this great gal, Amanda.  She came yesterday and met the boys.  Gus is so pumped for her to come today!!!!  She happens to be a 3rd grade teacher with DPS.  So we talked about that for a bit too.  Overall, I feel good about this.  My only concern is whether or not the boys will be good for her.  I'll let you know how this goes...

Are you beginning to feel better?  getting on a normal sleep schedule? 

I miss you so much! 

It's Hank Heffernan's Birthday!

This is Hank a few nights ago hiding in a sculpture in downtown Chapel Hill.  It's labeled not to get on or climb it, so I figured hiding in it was ok.

It's been rather uneventful day thus far...I suppose we'll party it up once Trent gets home.  This morning once both boys were up and around, they began fussing over a toy.  I told Gus 'it's his birthday, let him have it.'  His reply as he stomped off "Hank's birthday needs to be over now"  What a pill!  So before we went to the pool I took him to McDonald's to cheer his pouty self up a bit.

The other night for whatever reason I was signing Barbra Ann and Gus asked me if it was a real song.  I said yes it's a real song!  Then we looked it up on youtube to prove it.  Gus then asked me what was the very first song ever made.  I told him I wasn't sure.  He said "Call Dr. H.  She knows everything."  It made me miss you so much, him talking about you!  I told him I would ask, so we need an answer missy!

Hang in there getting over the jet-lag.  That's got to be rough!  Are you unpacking? or how does all that work with sending your things?? Is #1 son loving being in charge of the house?  Have the other two boys moved in?

Gus is now an Eagle!

Here are the boys outside of Gus' new school!  Gus is busy telling Trent how it would be if he went shark fishing.  Trent is trying to explain to Gus how important it is to do well at school and be a productive citizen.  Hank is playing with his tractors.  I'm am trying to get them back in the van because I'm hungry!!!

Enrollment was successful as far as I know.  The "data manager" aka secretary, was out at the time so the  principal and assistant principal were trying to help me as much as possible.  They both seemed super nice yet not nice enough to give me an interview.  Oh well I really didn't want to be at the same school as Gus.

So here is the proof we went to the park last night.  Do you see Hank's feet??? Don't worry both boys had baths when we got back home.  Gus found a pal that was 9 to play with.  He had actually moved from Indy!!  He was such a cool little guy.  He had a little sis, maybe 5 or 6, that enjoyed being "it"  playing tag.  This park has a memorial rose garden that Hank was pushing his stroller through.  Then we found this little bench and watched people walk their dogs!  Trent took me for ice cream before the park. At least I was in a good mood and the weather was pleasant so I may be willing to do the park again.

Did I tell you that Trent told Gus he could have a small pet like a fish or hamster?  Were you at FV when I unintentionally killed the goldfish and guppies?  Hamster-NO!  I can't even keep Frank the plant alive.  So we stupidly went to Petsmart and before we walked in I said we are NOT getting anything today.  Once we got in the store, Gus begged!!!!  We did NOT end up with anything...The night before all this, Gus rescued a baby frog from the swimming pool.  Trent allowed him to keep it in a bucket.  So the next morning we are all on the porch and Gus is holding this little frog and it gets loose.  Hank is screaming.  I am screaming and trying not to spill my coffee on Hank.  Gus and Trent are scrambling to find it.  Gus finds it by accidentally stepping on it...he picked it up, with it's eye hanging out, then Trent tells him that the frog is fine.  Gus finally decides to set it free by throwing it off the porch, which is on the second floor.  I pray for this little frog.   He would have had a better chance with the chlorine from the pool :(

More Fishing Funness

We have been fishing 4 of the last 5 evenings.  Gus has been more entertained by asking other fishermen about catfish than actually fishing.  This pic was taken at the Bell Church Pier off of Jordan Lake.  This lake evidently has the largest population of eagles on the east coast!  Eagles and fish, what more could Gus want?  On this particular evening we stopped to get actual bait.  I was not pleased when Trent comes back to the car with this bucket of live minnows.  YUCK-O!  I fussed that the nasty minnow water had better not spill in my van.  As you can see we made it to the pier with the minnows.  Gus wasn't afraid to grab them but there was no way he was going to put them on the hook.  Hank was screaming in delight at the little boogers trying to jump out of the bucket!  They haven't had much luck with catching anything.  Yesterday we just went down to our little pond here and I took some saltine crackers to feed the sweet turtles.  After we went through most of the package Gus and I spotted a catfish in the mix of 6 turtles we were throwing crackers to.  Trent wasn't fast enough with the fishing rod.  He later claimed that he hooked one, but I think it was just a tale.  Although whatever he had broke the line.  Anyway, I am done with the fishing!  I've never been one to have enough patience for sitting and being quiet.

Gus is feeling sad about not having any friends :(  For him to actually talk about it, just breaks our hearts!  Trent said we need to make more of an effort to take him places where there are actual kids.  I told Gus all he needs is us. You should have seen his face after I said that.  Like I said school doesn't start until the 26th so I guess I'll have to take him to the park.  I despise the park.  Other people's kids and dirt-NO THANKS!

I was super happy to see you arrived!  I can't wait to being hearing of your adventures beginning with whether or not you got a Sunday bagel!